Summary

Interview with Natalie Pizzini by Catherine Forge at Pizzini Wines, King Valley, Victoria, on 21 July 2017. Original recording.

Natalie Pizzini was born in Canberra in 1972 and is the daughter of Katrina Pizzini, who was also interviewed for the Invisible Farmer Project on 21 July 2017. Both Natalie and Katrina work for their family wine-making business, Pizzini Wines, in Whitfield, King Valley, Victoria. In this interview Natalie reflects on how her grandparents immigrated from Trentino in Northern Italy to the Ovens Valley and King Valley regions in the 1950s. Alongside their extended family, Natalie's grandparents worked hard to establish the largest tobacco producing company in the Southern Hemisphere. In the 1970s when the tobacco industry started to decline, the family decided to begin diversifying by planting grape seedlings, with their first Riesling grapes planted in 1978. Natalie recalls her childhood and teenage years spent out on the land planting vines and picking grapes with her family. She speaks of the integral role that women in her family have played on the land, and particularly her grandmother's influence on the business. Rosetta Pizzini (1924-2017) dedicated her life's work to the family business, and Natalie reflects on her grandmother's role as a strong female chef, gardener, cook, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.

Natalie went to university to study environmental science before finding herself back in Whitfield working for her family's restaurant, the Mountain View Hotel, in Whitfield. It is here that she began honing her skills in food tourism and marketing, which has continued to be her main role with Pizzini Wines. Natalie sits on a number of tourism boards and councils and speaks at length about the importance of food tourism and connecting with consumers at a local level. She was instrumental in setting up the King Valley Food and Wine Festival in 1999 and has continued to network and lobby government about the importance of promoting the region's food and wine. Reflecting on her role as a female in the wine industry, Natalie speaks about some of the issues and challenges that she faces, including balancing motherhood and family life with work, working remotely away from the vineyard and raising consumer awareness around the hard work that goes into producing wine.

This interview is part of Museums Victoria's Invisible Farmer Project Collection. The Invisible Farmer Project was the largest ever study of Australian women on the land, uncovering the histories and stories of Australian women in agriculture. It began as a pilot project (2015-2016) and evolved into a three year (2017-2020) nation-wide partnership between rural communities, academic, government and cultural organisations, funded by the Australian Research Council.

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Digital audio recording, MP3

Physical Description

Digital audio recording, MP3 format.

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